“…This gift,
this chrism meant for you alone
lifts up its heady scent and fills
this house like prayer, confirming dust
with sanctity and all because
you came into my life on feet
like dusty heartbeats beating bare.”
Quote: taken from ‘Bethany’, a poem by Capuchin Friar David Hirt
John 12: 1–11 Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with “costly perfume”
If in your heart you make a manger for his birth.
Then God will once again become a child on earth.
We draw close and our hearts awaken.
A manger simple yet sturdy. Isn’t that what we seek in this season of Advent? We seek something that is strong enough to receive the promise of life and renewed love.
Isn’t that what these weeks before Christmas offer? They offer time set apart – time to focus on what gently holds our hope and calls us to watch and prepare a place for God.
We hope and listen. We prepare our hearts both outside and within, making room for new life and renewed love.
Reflection inspired by the song– If in your heart –
from the CD- An Unexpected Christmas – the Virginia Girls Choir and Ana Hernandez
Quote – Angelus Silesius
Art – He Qi
Today we have celebrated Palm Sunday. Once again I am intrigued by how chaotic and awkward the worship can feel. It can be a stretch to ‘connect the dots’ between triumphal entry and brutal death. Too much for one service, we attempt a flow of worship, where it appears none was intended. Frustrated – we force this story and its impact to fit our worship service and self-created time restraint.
The service for Palm Sunday is overwhelming. Even if the church designed this service to pack in the whole story, it could be the best way to begin Holy Week. On this day we enter a week filled with confusion, fear, pain and celebration. Was it not chaos for all involved during that week? Jesus had tried to explain all that was to come. But among this glorious entry into the city of ‘all that was sacred’, an entry that sung of victory and God’s blessing – who could have imagined that all would turn so horrible and tragic. The chaos certainly was overwhelming. Packed into a week – they went from certainty to despair.
And so packed into an hour and a half we, as followers of Jesus, share in this heart wrenching confusion – we enter with palms waving and exit in silent, somber awe. Exhausted we leave – wondering how all of these moments can happen so quickly.
Whether it is in an hour or a week, the moments happen quickly for they are out of our control, then and now. We walk the road this next week, invited to gather for the sacred meal, stay alert in the garden and know the sound of death’s silence. We know our hearts will rise with a dawn’s sun but for this moment we are invited to join in the journey of these six days. It does not matter how often you have experienced this Holy Week – the road is filled with new images and insights. Stay alert for the moments pass quickly.
(a re-written re-post)
Carrie's Bench 
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